Grinding coffee in your own kitchen provides the opportunity to touch and smell the beans, as well as anticipate the sweetness, acidity, flavor and flavor of the cup. The coffee she makes is rich and fresh and the aroma that fills the room is a great way to start a new day. There are tools and appliances that are prized possessions on the kitchen counter full time. Yours may be different from someone else’s, but they will likely include several of the following: a coffee maker with a built-in grinder or a stand-alone coffee grinder, a blender, juicer, or food processor, a quality knife set, and radio.
The grinder options available are many. Old grinders on cylindrical mills. Manual grinders that you place on top of a bowl to collect the ground coffee. Crank grinders with a drawer under the blade for grinding. The mortar and pestle coffee grinder is another old version that requires manual strength and patience to grind coffee. Other types of coffee grinders available include electric and hand-operated models with a conical or grinding wheel.
The history of coffee grinders dates back to the Middle Ages to Turkey, Persia and Greece. The coffee beans were roasted in small saucers over the fire. A cylindrical mill was used to grind the coffee. The hand crank grinder was quite simple in design. The top would have a removable lid to place the coffee beans in the main body of the container. The main body was in the shape of a cylinder. The inside of the mill would grind the coffee beans. The coffee grounds would fall into a bowl or plate. The grounds were transferred to a different container for processing. The mills were modified over time. For example, two tapered plugs were added to the design. One attached to the mill and the other to the bottom of the body by means of a screw. The lower container would hold the ground coffee. This is how millions of people in Turkey and abroad still use the Turkish manual coffee grinder.
A wooden pestle and mortar grinder, used to make “coffee powder”, was included in the Mayflower’s cargo in 1620. This is not a surprise since Captain John Smith (c. January 1580 – June 21, 1631), who was an English soldier, explorer, author and one of the first to arrive on the New Continent, had become familiar with coffee during his visits to Turkey. It is interesting to note that the Dutch, who had an early knowledge of coffee from their colonies around the world, were not the first to bring coffee to the first permanent settlements. However, coffee was probably imported from Holland as early as 1640. The British introduced the coffee drink to the New York colony sometime between 1664 and 1673, which is noteworthy as tea is the traditional British drink. . In the 1670s, coffee was roasted, ground, brewed, and then flavored with sugar or honey and cinnamon. Without a doubt, the mortar and pestle coffee grinding technique changed as innovative New World settlers discovered ways to make the task of coffee grinding easier by using more efficient and durable coffee grinding tools.
The first US patent for a coffee grinder was awarded to Thomas Bruff of Maryland in 1798. Thomas Bruff was one of Thomas Jefferson’s dentists. Thomas Jefferson often referred to dental problems and dental visits in letters that are now a public record. It is quite possible that when he visited Dr. Bruff’s office, Thomas Jefferson may have seen a wall-mounted device with ground beans between metal nuts with fine and coarse teeth. No pun intended, but how fitting that a dentist filed the first American patent for a coffee grinder! In 1870, Champion # 1 became one of the most widely used commercial mills in grocery stores. In 1898, the Hobart Manufacturing Company of Troy, Ohio, filed a patent for an electric grinder. The design included teeth on a rotating shaft inside the housing below the bean compartment. Several years later, several patents were issued for grinder blades with slightly different improvements to the steel cutting design.
For some coffee lovers and connoisseurs, vintage coffee grinders are a must-have to collect in their homes. This does not mean that if you are one of them, you have to look for one at yard sales or old-fashioned general stores. You certainly can if you prefer. However, well known manufacturers of coffee making equipment recognized the trend and now offer a wide selection of coffee machines that look genuinely old. They retain the look and feel of old coffee grinders, but incorporate modern enhancements to ensure a fine, superior grind for great tasting coffee. Some of the old-style gourmet coffee grinder brands include Bodum, Universal, and Jablum, to name just a few.
Of course, it is not necessary to use an old coffee grinder to grind the beans. There are many alternatives available in modern coffee grinding equipment to satisfy the most demanding coffee lovers. Burr grinders are probably the best option for grinding coffee at home. They usually have two different rotating surfaces to crush the grains placed between them. Cylinder styles, sizes, shapes, and other features vary from model to model. Why use a burr grinder? Unlike blade grinders, grindstones grind coffee in a nearly frictionless manner, which means that the beans release the most flavor oils for a great, fresh cup of coffee. Burr grinders are available as manual or automatic grinders. The choice will be entirely up to you. The manual process is not that long, actually. Typically, it takes about 5 minutes of manual grinding or so for a typical pot size of 8 to 12 cups. However, this can be inconvenient if you are short on time. Whether you choose a manual or automatic strawberry grinder, the coffee will grind evenly, which is a great feature for great tasting coffee. Bodum, Capresso, and Breville are examples of available strawberry coffee grinder brands.
With all this talk about coffee, I’m ready for a great cup of gourmet Jamaican Genuine Blue Mountain coffee. Do you want to join me for a drink?